Paella and Agua de Valencia

Paella is the lifeblood of Valencia. The principal ingredient is rice, homegrown in the small

towns surrounding the city centre, and its spiritual home is Albufera - a natural park and lake

south of the city. What makes paella special isn't just the ingredients, it's how it brings people

together.

Paella Valenciana is the traditional version - rabbit, chicken, green beans, and rice cooked in a

wide, flat pan over an open fire. The word "paella" actually refers to the pan itself, not the dish.

There are countless variations - seafood, vegetable, mixed - but any Valencian will tell you that

only the original counts. They're not wrong.

There are plenty of restaurants in Valencia serving good paella, but for a truly special

experience you need to go to the source. In Albufera you'll find Arrocería Maribel, in El Palmar

right on the edge of a canal. It has a terrace overlooking the rice fields that produce the very

rice on your plate.

Agua de Valencia is the other thing you cannot leave without trying. Invented in Valencia, it

consists of freshly squeezed orange juice, cava, gin and vodka, served in a jug and shared

among friends. It’s stronger than it looks, so consider yourself warned.

My favourite place to drink it is Café Sant Jaume in the El Carmen neighbourhood. The bar is

housed in a former pharmacy that opened in 1899, and you can still feel the history the

moment you walk in - original wooden interiors, a beautiful carved bar, shelves lined floor to

ceiling with bottles where the medicine used to be. It has been a bar since 1984 and is one of

the few places in Valencia that follows the original Agua de Valencia recipe closely. Sit out on

the terrace on Calle Caballeros, order a jug, and watch the old city go by. There is genuinely no

better way to spend an evening.

Between the paella and the Agua de Valencia, you have two very good reasons to visit

Valencia. You'll probably need one to recover from the other.